Now it's official: Garden authorized by the WV extension service

Well, not really. But we do have an old sign where we can claim as much.

The late 'Pap,' Ron's father, worked as an agent for the agricultural extension service in Monroe County, WV. I hope that he would be proud to see what our garden is doing now and boy could we use him for some expertise.

As for the garden, things are going pretty well, with the exception of some furry culprit taking pretty large bites out of our tomatoes. More to come on the suspect, after I get the .22 out of storage.

Here's an itemized update (but not all inclusive):

Above, are the pumpkin plants. There are three plants apiece in two separate mounds. The leaves are terribly big but we haven't had any sustained fruits as of yet. I'm hoping that changes as we push through the calendar.

Here you see only six squash plants, one of which is being hassled and dwarfed by the size of the pumpkin leaves. Below you'll see a picture of blossoms and the beginnings of our yellow/summer/crookneck squash. 

There is a plethora of these squash when we peak under the leaves, so it looks like we'll be having them with every meal!

It is probably hard for you all to visualize the watermelon vines through all of the leaves, but we have two mounds with three plants in each. These are just now starting to really take off and we haven't seen any fruit as of yet.

The bell peppers look pretty good, huh? These are supposed to turn red but have stayed green so far. Lots of the pepper plants are producing, but we haven't picked any yet. Let's see how big they get.

For all you tomato lovers, there are plenty in the garden. Evidently there is a varmint that has taken a few bites out of some of our bigger tomatoes but hopefully we'll snuff him (or her) out. The red tomato pictured above we shared as an appetizer with cottage cheese. Delicious.

Here are the cucumbers that have flowered and are now beginning to fruit. The little cuc's look like cornichons right now, but will probably be the size of my forearm before it's all over with. We have two mounds with three plants in each.

The corn is doing what corn does, but notice how the carrots are coming along!. The green (pole) beans in between look pretty good, but the leaves have recently been ravaged by what we assume is the same tomato culprit.

So, lots to see in this picture. In the foreground is the row of red onions and eggplants. At least one eggplant has emerged and the onions are moving right along with no complaints. Behind this row is the Swiss chard. It's starting to flower at the top but we have picked a bucket full of leaves. Most wilt these hardy leaves down by sautéing but we have chosen to add it into our salads. Behind that are the bush beans whose leaves have also fallen victim to the tomato culprit, but the blossoms and subsequent beans are still intact.

 

 

The dill weed and basil are growing fast and our radishes have almost totally matured. Pretty soon we'll have to (hopefully) spend a lot of time harvesting. Erica does have a fall garden in mind so this topic isn't going anywhere. I think the Spencer men would be proud of our work and I know much of Erica's inspiration comes from them.